Here’s a little sneak peak of Alex’s Amazing Amazon Adventure

More important than any Semester at Sea Update:

CONGRATULATIONS SAMI POP ON BEING ELECTED SENIOR CLASS PRESIDENT OF WESLEYAN! I guess that makes you kind of a big deal and me the first twin. Love you so much oobi.

Jenny and I buying the village kids ice cream.

Fishing for Piranhas!

Awesome sunset!

The giant caiman that swarmed out of the guides hand and onto my thigh...

Richard and I chilling on our hammocks!

I had an amazing time sleeping on a hammock and living on a riverboat for three days. Some highlights included seeing the meeting of the waters (Amazon River and Rio Negro), catching caimen (alligators), trekking through the jungle, seeing pink dolphins, beach parties, playing soccer in a local Amazonian village, and piranha fishing! The trip was incredible but one serious downfall was that as of the plane rides back to the ship 15/28 students on my boat got VERY sick (puking and diarrhea). I thought I was in the clear but alas, at 4:48 PM yesterday the plague hit me. Two shots, immodium, cipro, and 15 hours of sleep later I am feeling better. Never overestimate the Amazon- unless you’re Jenny Feuer and have a superior immune system.

The real post about Brazil will come in the near future- I have two tests and a project that I need to complete before I blog. Stay tuned. Fort Laudy and home in 9 days.

G G G GHANA: Cape Coast Historical Tour

Jenny and I had to be in the Union by 6:30 the following morning to meet up with our overnight trip group. This was a very small group- 27 people total, with about 15 of them being lifelong learners, teachers, or families. Luckily my favorite trip leaders, Tina and Lee Riedinger, were leading this trip and the majority of the older people were awesome. Jenny, Kyle, and I probably spent more time talking with the lifelong learners than other students. Overall I had a great time on this trip because it was very chill and we were with a good group of people.

As I said earlier we had to meet in the Union at 6:30 and were supposed to leave shortly thereafter. Unfortunately our tour bus broke down and we did not end up leaving the ship until 9 AM. Rumor has it we may be getting compensated for the delay. Honestly though, we didn’t have all that much to do on the itinerary the first day anyway, so we didn’t end up missing anything. After we got on the buses we proceeded to the Central Region of Ghana which was about three and one half hours away from Tema. Along the way we were able to see hundreds of Ghanaians who were all carrying anything and everything on their heads. It was awesome to drive by markets of people all with free hands but loaded with things on their heads. After we moved out of Accra we began to see the rural areas which consisted of dirt roads.

After lunch at a restaurant that was surrounded by a pond filled with crocodiles we proceeded to Kakum National Park which is famous for its Canopy Walk. The Canopy walk consisted of seven individual walkways that each had a very narrow wood plank that was surrounded by vertical netting on either side. We walked single file across the planks and after each individual bridge there was a type of lookout tower in the middle of the rainforest. We were walking in the canopy of the rainforest about 40 ft above the ground! Unfortunately we weren’t able to see the wildlife because we were Canopy Walking in the middle of the day and most of the animals were away, keeping out of the sun. Regardless it was really fun sky walking and I really enjoyed it.

The Canopy Walk and lunch were the only set items on the itinerary that day and we proceeded to the Coconut Grove Beach Resort in Elmina for the night. We passed through this really awesome fisherman’s village where there were hundreds of boats and crowds of people all going about their business. One thing I noticed is that each fishing boat had, as far as I could tell, completely random flags. There were flags from Spain, England, America, Brazil… even Israel had a flag. I couldn’t comprehended the randomness of the flags for the life of me.

Jenny and I got our own room which was similar in style to the small cottage type things we stayed in on the safari. We were finally able to shower which was much needed and with the free WiFi, attempted to download many much needed episodes of LOST. The group had dinner together outside by the beach and I was more than happily surprised to see French Fries as a buffet item. Jenny and I proceeded to talk with Tina and Lee for about an hour about life in Tennessee (they’re both physics professors at the University of Tennessee) and their family and also shared our own life stories with them. We walked down to the beach for a little and saw HUGE crabs walking around all over the sand. Afterwards, Kyle met up with us and we continued to chill before deciding to go to sleep. Going to sleep meant that Jenny and I took advantage of the free internet and were facebooking, mscheduling, and trying to reconnect with the outside SAS world. The free internet was great but it would have been even better if the connection was a little bit faster- LOST had been downloading for the past two hours and still had “four hours remaining.”

Luck was on our side and we woke up the next morning with a fully downloaded episode of LOST. Please note that this is the fifth episode of season six and we are still very behind. After breakfast the group went on the “historical” part of the Cape Coast Historical Tour and toured both Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Both castles were active during the slave trade and used to detain slaves before they were sent across the Atlantic. We were able to walk into the pitch black dungeons and attempt to imagine the reality of the situation. Try to imagine a dungeon that was pitch black and only a couple of rooms wide that was used for over 1,500 slaves at any given time. Women and men were obviously separated and different forms of punishment were used for rule breakers. Both castles had museums that described the history of the slave trade and the castle itself. An interesting comparison between the two castles is that Elmina was not originally built purely for the slave trade but was built much earlier when the Portuguese controlled Ghana. Therefore the dungeons and facilities were not as horrible as the dungeons in Cape Coast Castle (a castle specifically built for the slave trade).

After the slave dungeon tours we had lunch at a local restaurant in the fisherman’s village (they had fries again!) and then went back on the bus for our return journey. The journey ended up being a prolonged adventure because of the traffic. Our expected three hour bus ride evolved into five hours. We were all happily back on the ship by 6 PM where many of us proceeded to shower, eat dinner, and board the shuttle for our last night out in Ghana.

As a female I felt the most vulnerable in Ghana than I had in any previous port. I mentioned in the previous blog that there was a fine line between fun and sketchy situations and I had reached the point in my Ghanaian stay where I was beyond fed up and irritated by Ghanaian men trying to talk to me or grabbing my arm. For the record I was not alone in these feelings. Therefore I was extremely happy when a club was throwing a purely Semester at Sea party and only open for SASers. I was relieved that I would not have to keep watching my back at every second and feeling uncomfortable. After a group of us met up at another local bar we crossed the street to the club. It was a great night and could not have resembled Freshman Year Michigan Studio more.

The next day Rachel and I were supposed to meet Fred’s aunt Ophelia at the preschool that she taught at. The same group from the first day more or less, ended up coming with us. The second the six of us entered the outdoor preschool these tiny, adorable Ghanaians all started screaming of happiness and running up to us and hugging us. We split up three and three and went into the two classrooms. I was in the classroom with the younger children (babies to about four year olds) and had so much fun playing with them. Once again we could not really communicate but I was pleased to discover that they knew the song “if you’re happy and you know it.” After about two hours of playing with the kids I noticed a couple of them lying in a corner of the room napping. It appeared to be nap time and never having turned down the opportunity to nap in my life I joined my fellow nappers and slept on the floor with them. Too bad we have to grow up.

Our group went back to Fred’s mom’s house who had insisted on cooking us a truly Ghanaian meal with Red-Red. The naturopathic doctor stopped by to meet us and told us about his profession. He explained his profession as trying to promote a person’s well being and by doing that correcting any of their illnesses. He claims that he has cured cancer, diabetes, etc. I’m not sure if I exactly believe him but the ideas behind his methods were very interesting. He explained that if a person came to him with a stomach ache for example, rather than prescribing medicine he would ask more mental questions that aimed at determining what was causing said patient to feel ill. Apart from discussing his profession he taught us how to eat Ghanaian Red-Red like a true Ghanaian- with our hands. I actually enjoyed it a lot and thought it was pretty cool how we were eating.

After Fred’s mom’s house we asked Fred to take us to a market so that we could buy crafts and gifts. For some reason he thought it best to take us to the beach where there were literally two small shops that had nothing we wanted to buy. I’m pretty sure he knew the guys working there and was trying to earn some type of commission. I was pretty annoyed at the situation. We proceeded to go to Global Mamas, a women’s microfinance project that enables women to sustain themselves. I opted out of going to this market because I heard it was not what I was looking for and retired to the shuttle to go back to the ship.

Ghana was awesome. I had my cultural immersion experience, went on the Canopy Walk, saw the slave dungeons, played with little Ghanaians at a preschool, ate at local homes, and interacted with the locals. It was amazing but partially tainted by that nagging fear that I had to always be on alert. For the record I really don’t like Ghanaian men hitting on me or making that move from being friendly to overly friendly. I heard of multiple situations when I was back on the ship of Ghanaian men giving girls gifts or buying them drinks and then pursuing to receive something sexual from them in return. Honestly, it just wasn’t ok and I was kind of creeped out while I was in Accra. I really enjoyed my time there, am glad I went, but don’t feel like I have to return there. Ghana- thanks for a real experience.

More pressing matters to be discussed: the UNDERWEAR THEIF. You’re eyes did not deceive you- there is an UNDERWEAR THEIF on the ship and it’s gross. I, among many other female students have become a victim of underwear theft. Our laundry consists of us putting dirty clothes in bags and leaving them outside our doors so that our stewards can take them to be cleaned the next day. We fill out receipt forms that indicate how much of each clothes item we have. When I received my clean clothes I was dismayed to discover that my underwear count had been changed from 14 to 11! Three underwears were missing and were missing prior to being washed because Ray, my steward, indicated that I only had eleven pieces and not fourteen. I soon found out that I was not alone! Someone is going around during the night and stealing girl’s thongs. This may sound comical, but I assure you, the thief will be caught. It’s just creepy. What could anyone want with up to thirty pairs of dirty underwear?

We had the shipboard auction which raises money for scholarship funds etc. I really really wanted to hoist the American flag when we got to Fort Lauderdale but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it because I didn’t end up spending an obscene amount of money to do so) the flag hoisting was auction off at $280! The whole auction was insane- a map signed for the captain went for $600, dinner with one of our teachers went for $700, a bottle of pepto signed by the ship doctor went for $42, being able to make the menu for a day went for $300, etc. Dad- I may not understand the full value of a dollar, but let’s be honest, I’m not that stupid. Bottom line: the whole thing was insane and my mouth was hanging open for the majority of it. Our friends did end up going in on one item together than we won- a private showing of a movie of your choice in a classroom of your choice for a group of ten (popcorn and drinks included). It ended up coming to about $20ish dollars a person which to be honest is what it costs to go to the movies now anyway.

I’m completely done with two of my classes now. I have one final in Global Mental Health which consists of being given two essay prompts at 8 AM and having to turn in the essays by 8 PM. It’s open book aka I’m not worried. Other than that we are hurrying to make our global studies group project that has switched from Food Distribution to Transportation. Once this presentation is done, I’m cruising- pun intended. Oh and it’s official: the drawing was held to see the order of which seas would be let off the ship in Fort Lauderdale and my sea was obviously picked last. Mom- sleep in. I won’t be getting off the ship until around 1, so I don’t expect you to be waiting at 8 AM though you probably will be anyway.

Brazil and the Amazon in two days!!!! Nine countries done, one to go… definitely the fastest semester in college. One more thing: Lakers 87, Thunder 79. Let’s go Lake Show.

Go Black Stars. Go Ghana.

Whenever boys come back to the ship after being in port, I hear about all these awesome cultural immersion experiences they had. The ironic part is that none of these boys ever have any definite plans in the countries but just kind of go with it. Perhaps it’s because I’m a girl or because I booked all my SAS overnight trips in December and have had planned trips in the majority of the countries, but I never got to experience the random spontaneity of traveling. The stories I heard of kids traveling to Hanoi on the back of motorcycles or staying in a tuk-tuk driver’s hut in a fisherman’s village in India made me feel like I was partially missing out on the “real,” unplanned experiences. Traveling spontaneously requires letting your guard down to a certain extent and being more open to trusting people. That combination can often times get you into sticky situations but in order to have a “real” experience, more risk is involved. That being said, I am happy to report that I got my spontaneous cultural experience in Ghana and it was awesome.

When Semester at Sea told us that Accra was the port in Ghana we would be at, they kind of lied. We actually docked in Tema which was about an hour away from Accra. Though shuttles were available from the ship to Accra and back, the whole traveling part to actually get to Accra was kind of sucky and restricted our time spent in port unless we wanted to take a cab back at our own expense. The day we docked in Tema, Brooke, Rachel, and I hurried down to the shuttles the second we cleared immigration because if we did not get on the first shuttle we would have to wait another hour. The bus dropped us off in what appeared to be a random parking lot on some side street in Accra. Come on SAS, you could at least give us some indicator as to where in the world we were let off. The three of us merged groups with Tammy, Micaela, Marge, and Hillary and we all headed to the ATM with plans of then going to a market. While at the ATM we were approached by a Ghanaian who introduced himself as Fred and asked if we needed someone to show us around. This was the initiation of the “Ghanaian Spontaneous Experience” and as you can see required us trusting a complete stranger and all too eagerly agreeing for him to guide us.

We told him we wanted him to take us to the actual Accra, not the tourist one. He decided to take us to his church and thought that would be a good beginning to viewing the Ghanaian culture. We traveled by TroTro, a Ghanaian version of the South African mini-bus that is basically a public taxi that picks up randos off the street and delivers them to various destinations. Once we got to the church location we ran into Fred’s sister, cousin, and aunt who had just got out of services and told us they were over. This led us to TroTro to the Teshie Village to view how a typical Ghanaian lives.

Before going into the actual village, Fred took us to a coffin shop. In Ghana a lot of people are buried in coffins that best resemble their lives. For example a fisherman would be buried in a coffin that resembles a fish or a minister would be buried in a coffin resembling a church. I thought these coffin designs were awesome and totally made sense. I guess if you’re dead it doesn’t really matter but why wouldn’t you want to be buried in something that resembles a part of you instead of a nice looking rectangle? In my morose, coffin thinking state of mind, I’ve decided that at this point in my life it would be best for me to be buried in a soccer ball coffin or a big Michigan “M” coffin. The whole coffin store visiting experience interesting and unusual because we were looking at these coffins as things that were cool and fun and not in a gloomy, someone just died sort of way.

Post-coffin browsing we crossed the bridge into the village. The Teshie village more or less resembled a township in South Africa- run down, dirty and poor but mixed with a big feeling of community. The village was self-sufficient and had its own stores, restaurants and I believe schools. We were walking around the village literally soaked in sweat (it was around 90 degrees and VERY HUMID) when we saw a bar/restaurant type thing and we decided to stop and get a drink to refresh ourselves. I think most of the villagers were surprised to see seven white, Americans there because there were a lot of double-takes.

At Ghana pre-port we learned some Ghanaian dance moves (The Kangaroo and the Old Man Boogie) and since there was music at the restaurant/bar, Rachel decided to try out her moves with one of the Ghanaian women working there. This soon escalated into the VDP (village dance party) of the century. All seven of us started dancing and before we knew it, the ENTIRE village was there taking part in the festivities. I had the honor of dancing with a bunch of cute, little Ghanaian boys who definitely had way more rhythm than I did. Everyone was having fun and it felt totally normal until an older Ghanaian kind of grabbed at me and Hillary. Fred immediately pulled him away and we knew it was time to leave. Ghana for me had a lot of those fun borderline not ok moments. Luckily Fred was there to intervene and there was no harm done. Overall we all thought it was awesome that we got to start a dance party in a village in Ghana and were happy about it.

Fred proceeded to take the seven of us to his Dad’s house. After TroTroing there we walked on unpaved dirt roads, passed small shops and homes, to a type of dead end where there were about three houses. The houses were very normal and what you would expect a house to be. There were several bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and main room where his dad, Tony was sitting. We all took off our shoes and entered the main room to meet Tony. Tony was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, shirtless, watching TV and could not have been more hospitable. He started telling us about the Ghanaian culture and history and asked as questions about life in the US. His sister, Olivia (who we had met earlier at the church) surprised us and made us all lunch. We sat around a small table eating plain spaghetti, and a rice and bean dish that had this really spicy sauce on it. I ate the food and enjoyed most of it (thought it was really spicy)… I know, shocker. We drank water out of plastic bags- they don’t really use bottled water in Ghana but rather bagged water that reminded me of the water bags that are in earthquake kits. Check out the picture of me and Tammy. After meeting the rest of Fred’s family we proceeded to the beauty salon.

Rachel and I had told Fred earlier in the day that we both wanted hair wraps. What we meant was that we’d love to go to a market and get a random lady on the street to give us hair wraps (like at Disneyland). He interpreted our request as wanting to go to a hair salon and potentially get a weave. Not wanting to offend him we proceeded to his mother’s house which was right down the street from her hair dresser. After being served a type of ginger drink by his mom, she led the way to the hair dresser. I was the first guinea pig and it quickly became apparent that “hair wrap” is not a common term used in Ghana. After making it clear that hair wrap required colored string, the hair dresser finally understood what we were asking for. The whole situation was pretty comical because we were literally sitting in a beauty salon in Accra and having our hair “done” by a stylist. I got three hair wraps, two of which have already fallen out.

We went to dinner at a local Ghanaian restaurant where most of us ate Red-Red, a Ghanaian bean and rice dish. I lucked out and was able to order plain rice and chicken. I think after dinner a lot of us were still pretty hungry. Anyway we met up with some of our other SAS friends at a random bar on Oxford Street and had the second dance party of the day. After the first bar Fred wanted to take us to a club on the Beach and we proceeded to head there in a taxi to discover that it was closed. After about thirty minutes of traveling around Accra by taxi, I was exhausted. I was able to catch the 10 PM shuttle back to the ship and headed straight to the pool deck to order a pizza. Cape Coast Historical Tour, Ghana part II up next.

CAPE TOWN: The Anti-Bucket List but AMANDA BLAIR SUSSMAN

As many of you are aware I wanted to skydive AND shark dive in Cape Town. Mom and Dad- I respected your wishes and DID NOT skydive in Cape Town though it could have easily been made a reality. Just know that a lot of my friends did not understand why I wouldn’t just skydive and then tell you both but I resisted peer pressure and did not jump. I wish the peer pressure was more effective. In regards to shark diving (cage diving in the ocean with great white sharks) I was scheduled to go on Sunday, my last day in Cape Town. Unfortunately all of the diving trips were called off that day because the weather was not shark diving weather. Bottom line, Cape Town the land of the supposed to be bucket list has now turned into the anti-bucket list and I have big plans for my 22^nd birthday. Skydive Ann Arbor! Dad- you’re invited.

Right after I got back from the safari I quickly packed and made my way to Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town where Amanda Blair Sussman is living. Luckily a couple of my friends on the ship were staying with their Boulder friend in Cape Town who happens to be close with Amanda so all of us taxied there together. Seeing Amanda for the first time abroad, in a non-Michigan, non-NELP setting was amazing. It was so great to see her Cape Town life, the town she lives in, the restaurants she eats at, and the places she goes. This was my first experience of actually seeing a friend abroad who had immersed herself in the culture and country as opposed to our sweet life of traveling. Mands- you really have a good deal going on in Cape Town and if I wasn’t on Semester at Sea I’d be a little jealous…

Amanda’s house was awesome and homey. There were nine students living in it, three stories tall, nine rooms, two bathrooms, and a general common room and kitchen. All of the kids were really friendly and welcoming. After settling in for a couple minutes we got ready to go out for the night. As if everyone doesn’t already know this but it really is a small world. Amanda is close friends in Cape Town with Annabelle and Justine among others. Annabelle (who also goes to Michigan) and Justine both went to Beverly with me. Seeing them all together was literally a combination of both of my worlds- home and college. It was a little strange but at the same time makes complete sense. Annabelle, Justine, and Gabby all came over before we went out and it was great seeing familiar faces.

Long Street is the Lan Kwai Fong of Cape Town mixed with a little NOLA. The street consists of about three or four blocks packed with a large variety of restaurants and bars. Needless to say this is where every Semester at Sea student spent the majority of their nights in Cape Town. I went to Dubliner’s for the first time followed by a couple other bars. Honestly it was just great being with Amanda and being out with her. A little taste of Michigan for ya. At about 12:30, exhausted from the previous two Safari-filled days I told Amanda it was time to leave the festivities. On the way back to Rondebosch I left my mark on Cape Town. I hope that last sentence was ambiguous to everyone but Sussman.

The next day Amanda and I went to Table Mountain to go abseiling also known as repelling for all you Americans (which are all of you). We were in Cape Town over Easter- this means that like Disneyland on Christmas, places were crowded and lines were long. After being told to go in the line that did not already purchase online tickets, Amanda being the savvy individual she is, bought us cable car tickets online from her blackberry allowing us to cut the line. Unfortunately we missed about ten cable cars going up the mountain for various reasons or more accurately one specific reason due to yours truly. After struggling to make it into the cable car, we FINALLY made it to the top of Table Mountain which is a huge accomplishment in itself. It was a gorgeous day and the range of visibility was insane. NOTE: just take a look at the main picture for this blog post.

Time for the abseiling story. I have been repelling many times in the past and since I love rock climbing and anything related to it I was really excited to abseil off Table Mountain. The guys harnessed us up and explained the process of how we would descend. Sussman after realizing that we would be controlling our own descent, to be put nicely, FREAKED OUT. I have never seen her so scared in my life- and this fear was coming from a girl who has been bungee jumping twice. After we began to repel off the side, the guys running the show yelled down to us “enjoy the surprise!” Amanda had been semi-calm for the past two minutes but after hearing this, the freak out ensued. Unfortunately she had no choice but to go down. I was going quicker than her and got to the “surprise” first. The surprise- a complete drop off from the mountain, as in there was nowhere for our feet to go and we were legit hanging mid-air. Me, being the great friend I am, yelled back up to Amanda, “Sussman, you’re not going to like this surprise at all.” I enjoyed the harnessed free fall and took advantage of my new found swinging abilities. Poor, poor Sussy- she did not like the surprise. Anyway we both made it to the bottom and were safely on the ground. The guys above told us we would have a 20 minute stroll back to the summit. That was possibly the biggest lie I heard in my life. Amanda and I literally HIKED UP Table Mountain and it took much longer than 20 minutes.

After our abseiling experience we went back to Rondebosch for a quick lunch. Oh the wonders of technology. I had an interview with the psychology department at Michigan and was able to perform the interview via g-chat (skype for some reason wasn’t working). My interview went wonderfully and I am now officially a Psych Peer Advisor for next fall. Woooooo. Amanda and I proceeded to watch Friends in her bed, and honestly we could have been anywhere in the world.

That night for dinner we returned to Long Street to eat at Mama Africa’s. Amanda met a lot of my SAS friends but more noteworthy than that was the food that was consumed. At this restaurant I tried the following: ostrich, crocodile, kudu, and springbok. Believe what you want (though you really should believe me because I did try all these things). Jackie- when you go on Semester at Sea you have to go to this restaurant. My Michigan/SAS/Beverly worlds collided for a bit longer that night. All of us went to The Waiting Room, a bar that the local Cape Town abroad kids attend regularly. Sussman and I both decided to go back early because there was an off chance that we would be waking up early to go to a township to spend the remainder of the day on a yacht.

The yacht was an off chance (actually it turned out to be a reality for Mands later) and being realistic, we both slept in. That morning Amanda took me to Old Biscuit Mill a type of famer’s market that occurs every Saturday. On the way we took a Mini-Bus to the market. A mini bus consisted of a big van that would pick people off the street and drop them off at desired locations- in a sense it was a public taxi. In my mind it was kind of like a party bus because music was literally blasting and the car was filled with random people. Note: Semester at Sea tells us specifically not to ride in the mini buses because they are not completely safe. However since Suss lives in Cape Town and is familiar with the system, I was all for it. Old Biscuit Mill had a huge food section with lots of different foods, cheeses, sauces, etc. and a completely separate large shopping area. Old Biscuit Mill is where up and coming Cape Town designers sell their clothes and jewelry. The whole scene was really cool and really made me aware of how fashionable young Cape Towners are. These kids were really trendy and well put together- Sussman obviously fit in perfectly. For some reason the fashionableness of Cape Town kind of took me by surprise.

After Old Biscuit Mill we made our way back to downtown Cape Town for a Township Tour. Amanda being the wonderful friend she is booked and accompanied me on a township tour even though she volunteers in a township twice every week. Before the tour departed we made a quick stop at the Long Street Market which was more souvenir-y and what I was used to. I successfully purchased my South African flag along with three very cool paintings- happy birthday Sami and Jackie. The Township tour took us to two different townships- Langa and Khayelitsha (the township Amanda volunteers in). We toured the Black areas and the Colored areas and were able to enter certain hostels that were built prior to and after Mandela’s presidency. I tried local township beer (it kind of tasted like a hot dog in beer form) and visited a successful bed and breakfast whose profits are donated to children in the township. After seeing extreme poverty in almost all the ports, the townships hit me as less of a surprise. In a sense I was expecting what I saw. Despite that expectancy it was still a slap in the face reality check when I actually processed everything. My room in my house was often times bigger than a single family shack. The townships kind of resembled giant jungle gyms were hundreds of little children ran around in packs, independent of any adult supervision. Other observations included HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns all over as well as condom use promotions. I understand that it takes a very long time to reverse the effects of apartheid but it’s been 16 years. For a majority of South Africans to be living in this situation is horrible and change is long overdue.

After the township I packed up my clothes and Amanda accompanied me back to the MV Explorer- I wish she was allowed on the ship but unfortunately the ship has strict rules about not letting “others” on the ship. I said goodbye to Amanda and made my way back to my room to get ready to go out with other SASers for my last night in Cape Town. A bunch of us went to Fork, a tapas restaurant for dinner. It was amazing and I had the best tapas beef eggs-Benedict ravioli thing ever. After our prolonged dinner we walked back up Long Street for our last night in Cape Town. I left the night a tad prematurely because I thought I would be waking up two hours later to go shark diving. Unfortunately I did wake up at 4 AM only to find out that shark diving was not actually happening.

The last day in Cape Town consisted of hanging around by the waterfront- a really awesome place where the ship was docked. Since it was Easter Sunday some of the restaurants and stores were closed but overall the majority of things were still open. Ivy, Jill, Luke, Ricky, and I had a really nice breakfast on the water and proceeded to walk around the waterfront. I was in soccer heaven in the world cup store and proceeded to purchase the COOLEST South African Havaianas ever in addition to a couple legit 2010 World Cup shirts. Happy Birthday Daddy. Luke, Ivy, and I then went to the aquarium (we weren’t able to make it to the Cape of Good Hope and Boulder Beach where the penguins live because the cost was double to taxi us down there because of Easter). The aquarium actually turned out to be pretty cool and I did end up seeing my penguins. After the aquarium we got a quick bite in the mall area and walked around a bit more. I headed back to the ship for on-deck time and proceeded to sleep for the next four hours.

Cape Town is one of the coolest places ever and I had an amazing time. Amanda- once again thanks for everything, I hope you know how much fun I had with you and how much I love you. I feel like I really got a good overall feeling for Cape Town and was able to do a lot. I highly recommend everyone to visit Cape Town and possibly turn my Anti-Bucket list into a legit Bucket list destination. By the way, everyone should download Shosholoza- best song ever.

A couple side notes: the weather was VERY windy on Sunday, the day we were supposed to leave and as a result we were docked for a whole extra day because it was too windy for us to safely leave the channel. It was possibly the biggest tease in the world to have to sit through a day of class when you are able to look out the window and see Table Mountain. What a sick joke. Sorry for my delayed blog update- I actually had a legit paper and presentation I had to work on. Apart from literally spending the past week working on this paper/presentation, IM soccer (3 v 3) started on the ship and my team is in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Our team is called the Big Ten because I go to Michigan, Sam goes to Wisconsin, and Lucas goes to Penn State- I thought it was creative.

The past 3 months have gone by SO quickly and I can’t believe we are already at Ghana. I hate to say this but we’re coming home. Ghana on Sunday, crossing the Atlantic, Brazil and the Amazon, and Fort Laudy. The last noteworthy thing that has gone on in my life: YESTERDAY I REGISTERED FOR MY LAST SEMESTER IN COLLEGE (actually Joanna registered for me because I didn’t want to risk it with the unstable internet). Could that be any sadder or scarier? Fact: it’s all downhill after May 5^th.

CAPE TOWN: CALL ME SIMBA.

As I’ve said many times before, I had high expectations for Cape Town and now I can firmly state that the reality of Cape Town far surpassed those expectations and has undoubtedly been my favorite port thus far. I think it is now important to define “favorite” since I’ve been using that word a lot of over the course of the past three months. It should be pretty apparent from this blog (I hope) that each port and country is unique and virtually impossible to compare. Therefore “favorite” for the purpose of this blog and Semester at Sea experience, will be defined as the place I had the most fun, would want to live or study abroad in, and would be most dying to revisit. Let’s be honest- Cape Town is where it’s at.

We docked in Cape Town early Wednesday morning and once we were cleared by immigration, made our way off the ship to meet our Safari guide Quinton. The ship was docked at the V&N Waterfront, a gorgeous waterfront that was at the base of Cape Town and had a view of the entire city with Table Mountain in the background. I’m sure I will repeat this fact numerous times throughout my Cape Town story but Quinton was the man and made not only our safari experience but overall Cape Town experience unforgettable.

Quinton grew up in a well-off white family in South Africa during apartheid and as he said “had every advantage that could be given.” He tried to impress on us the cruelty of apartheid and the extreme inhumanity that occurred. One thing I definitely learned in South Africa is that Americans are way too politically correct. In South Africa it is completely normal to refer to people as white, colored, or black. Colored refers to light skin blacks or half-black, half-white citizens. I asked Quinton what I would have been recognized as during apartheid and he told me I would have been a question-mark. My skin color would label me as Colored but because I have a White person’s hair I could be considered White as well. Bottom line, he told me South Africa would not have been overly friendly to me during its recent history. It further dawned on me how ridiculous apartheid was. How could any sane person let alone an entire population that controlled the government think it’s humane to act his way? I understand the obvious comment would be to look at Nazi Germany or racial oppression in the US or Islamist Fundamentalists in the modern day Middle East but even with the long list of examples I still have not reached any clarity. You can’t understand insanity.

Moving on from questioning the countless ethical issues in the global communities, it is time to discuss the best safari ever. We (me, Jenny, Rachel, Brooke, Jeff, Dominique, and Arin) left Cape Town as soon as we met Quinton at the waterfront and headed to the Ivendoorn Game Reserve about two and a half hours away from the city in the Karoo Region. Along the way we stopped to take pictures of the view overlooking Cape Town and the town of Paarl as well as numerous baboons along the road. We arrived at Ivendoorn where we had lunch and pool time before the afternoon/sunset game drive. The safari lodge was awesome and isolated from any noticeable forms of civilization. At full capacity the lodge can only house forty guests and which meant the atmosphere was very subdued and relaxing.

It is important to mention that a game reserve is basically a fenced in zoo minus the cages and spread out over hundreds of acres. We were not in random wilderness in hopes of finding animals- we were more or less guaranteed to see animals (though the guides always explained that nothing is a guarantee). The reserve was divided into three sections: the lion reserve, the herbivore reserve, and the cheetah reserve. We first visited the lions. The reserve had three lions, a fact that made us all a little nervous and question the reputability of the safari. The lions were canned lions or lions that were caged as cubs and who never learned how to live in the wild. The reserve was meant to attempt to teach the lions the ways of the wild but more to take the lions out of the inhumane or “inlione” conditions they grew up in. It is impossible for canned lions to ever return to the wild and the whole sight was pretty sad. We finally found the lions- one male and two female but unfortunately they were not very active and partially camouflaged in the grass. My lion pictures are basically “where’s Waldo” pictures, the best of which you may be able to see a raised leg. I’m not going to lie, at this point I think we were all a little disappointed with the way things were starting out. The lions were the low point, and after all they were lions so it wasn’t really a low point, but regardless everything was uphill after that.

We made our way to the main reserve with the majority of the animals: kudu, water buffalo, springbok, eland, wildebeest, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, mongoose, zebra, etc. Not only did we see all these animals but we got really close to the majority of them. Seeing these animals, animals that you grow up hearing about and seeing in movies like the Lion King was unbelievable. I don’t think I can express how cool the safari actually was. The entire time I kept expecting for our guide to say “ok it’s time to go back” but instead she kept saying “ok it’s time to find the rhinos” or “let’s find us some zebras.” After seeing a couple of these animals I basically forgot about the rest and got so excited every time our guide said we were going to see an animal I forgot about.

After thinking the afternoon could not get any better our guide surprised us and took us to where the cheetahs were about to be fed. As I’ve said we were not in the real wilderness but rather in a game reserve where the workers try to give the carnivores the best life they can since they can’t fend for themselves in the actual wild. Three cheetahs approached a truck where two men were ready to feed them. After taking lots of pictures the men finally fed the cheetahs. Feeding consisted of throwing dead chickens at the cheetahs and having the cheetahs duke out which would get the food first. Our safari guide then took us to the other side of the cheetah reserve to watch towers where we were met with refreshment and drinks. We were able to see the cheetahs race each other. The game reserved mimicked a food chase to ensure that the cheetahs got their proper exercise. This entailed a mechanically controlled rodent looking thing running away from the cheetahs. The fastest land animal did not fail to impress- they were fast, really fast. It was an awesome way to end the day.

That night consisted of a five course meal in the lodge restaurant where we had a further opportunity to talk with Quinton. We literally stayed at the table for hours and just listened to Quinton tell us about his life and discuss our past three months. During dinner Quinton took us outside to watch the full moon rise and after dinner he took us out to see the stars. We walked outside the lodge premises and were pretty much in the open plains of Africa. Call me Simba. I literally felt like Simba when he gazed up at the stars while talking to dead Mufasa. The vastness of the universe, the stars, being away from civilization, and more importantly being in a grass plain in Africa was once in a lifetime.

We retired for the night in our “chalets” where Jenny and I decided to watch an episode of Glee on her laptop and pretty much passed out before the opening credits. The morning drive left at 6:30 and was cooler than the afternoon drive. The moon was still out while the sun was rising and the combination of the two was remarkable. We saw the animals making their way out to the watering hole to drink and eat their breakfasts. Though we basically saw the same animals we saw the night before we did get the opportunity to see the hippos for the first time. I’m not exactly sure why but for some reason I became obsessed and most excited about seeing giraffes right before I got to South Africa. Let me tell you- they are awesome, gorgeous, and the supermodels of the animal kingdom. I had been asking the guide for a while if I could get out of the car and take a picture with the giraffes and the obvious, given answer was “no” because she was unsure where the water buffaloes and the rhinos were. It was about an hour later when we passed six or seven giraffes that Wilma (the guide) surprised us and said, ok you can all get out of the vehicle, stay within one hundred yards and don’t be loud. I WAS STANDING TEN FEET AWAY FROM GIRAFFES! For a girl from Los Angeles this was possibly the most amazing and surreal thing ever. I was now certain that my safari experience was beyond complete.

We headed back to the lodge for a “hearty English breakfast” as the itinerary stated, and were given one more surprise. All of the guests (about twenty-five total) were told that we would have to remain in our seats and be very quiet because the animal workers were going to bring out the baby four month old cheetahs! The baby cheetahs came out on leashes and were literally being walked around the pool/breakfast area. Quinton, being the man that he is, told us to pretend like we finished eating and quietly follow him. He took us to the back area of the building where the cheetahs left to and we were than able to play with the cats. The two babies named Velvet and Shady were gorgeous and regal. Standing next to giraffes was cool but sitting down and petting baby cheetahs was cooler.

We left the lodge/reserve and still had a full day ahead of us that consisted of going to a wine estate in Stellenbosch for wine and cheese tasting and seeing the prison Nelson Mandela was freed from. Since we had gotten really close with Quinton by this part in the Safari we also arranged to meet his wife Abby and Abby’s niece who was living with them, Mulenga, later for drinks back at the waterfront.

The wine and cheese tasting was awesome. I obviously knowing nothing about wine but not having any problem drinking it was content. In all honesty I probably had more fun tasting the cheeses. We were served eight wines that were matched with eight cheeses. We were definitely enjoying ourselves and the whole experience because the wine and cheese tasting took a lot longer than it usually did. We had the option of buying wine and cheese which some of us did. This also meant that the wine had to be consumed prior to getting back to the ship since we were not allowed to take alcohol onboard. We left the wine estate in considerably happier and more light hearted moods than we arrived in. We proceeded to where Nelson appeared as a free man and stopped for a photo op.

The best safari and two days ended back at the waterfront where we met Quinton’s family. Quinton married Abby who he met in Zambia and brought back to Cape Town. Their niece Mulenga is living with them and finishing up the equivalent of high school in South Africa before all three of them move to Zambia. Abby and Mulenga were two of the nicest people I had ever met. According to Quinton “our enthusiasm is infectious” and we had a great time with his family. Brooke, Rachel, and Jenny had the opportunity to meet up with Quinton and Co. a couple more times while we were in Cape Town which I think shows how genuine and amazing him and his family are. I wish them all the best in starting their own business in Zambia!

As you can see the beginning of our Cape Town trip was incredible. Safari, playing with animals, wine tasting, meeting Quinton’s family- it was all awesome. The next portion of my Cape Town adventure will be referred to as The Anti-Bucket List Cape Town and Amanda Sussman. Also I would like to take this opportunity to apologize about my word usage (complimentary vs. complementary) and spelling (sedar not seder) mistakes. The purpose of family: to comment and call you to tell you about your inadequate writing abilities and not about the actual experience. Thanks Sam and Mom. Cape Town Blog Part II up next.